Hello GC, Ive been using roots organic soil for my past 2 grows, and im having nutrient burn problems even tho i am feeding only ph corrected distilled h2o. Some of the plants show curled up tips with small burns on the edges of the leaves. This is no surprise, seeing as when i test the PPM in my runoff it my meter reads "0read" which means that it is above 2000 PPM!!! This is just a warning not to use roots organic soil unless you are prepared to flush the crap out of your plants. This is the second time i have used roots organic soil, and there will not be a third.
You could probably mix that soil with miracle grows organic potting soil. I am using mg's organic potting soil and it has practically no nutes in it at all. Lots of people get N deficiencies early on because of this.
You need a cal-mag supplement with roots. That's because it's mostly coco coir and lacks it. I love roots organic, just add a little cal-mag during watering.
ive heard this from others who have used it as well. however in both of my experiences with it, it has had this soaring ppm level.
Don't know bout the roots so much but FoxFarm soils suck too... Never had fert problems before but I had the same exact problem 2000+ straight out the bag. Yo holmes Funk Dat. This shit's goin back to Cali, goin back to cali. Black Gold Organic/Coconut Coir here we come been using for almost 15 years no problems, PNW rocks anyway. If my store ain't got it next time I'm gonna drive 50 miles to get it.
ill be flushing to correct my ph in about 2 days. the high level of organic nutrients in the soil has also taken my ph down to about 5.5 even though i am feeding with ph~6.4 i know it is not my meters, because i have the highest quality ph and ec meters. it cant be just the specific bag of soil that was messed up because this is the second time ive had this problem. it cant be the water because all ive fed is distilled h2o. ill probably just go with coco next.
I've on my second cycle of using Roots Organic, and I've encountered this issue with some strains and not with others. If you know the strains you're growing are sensitive to nutrients or you prefer to err on the side of caution, give the soil a decent flushing when you're about to transplant or right after. Runoff from fresh Roots Organic will definitely be above 2000 ppm, but strains that can take a decent amount of nutrients seem to absolutely love it in my experience.
Yea, the plants don't seem to view roots organic's prepacked 2000 ppm the same as 2000 ppm liquid nutrient mixture fed to them though. I don't know the science behind it, but I'm guessing not all of those 2000+ ppm are immediately available for uptake by the plant.
Here are some rules about growing organic.... #1 NEVER EVER, EVER adjust the ph of your tea, or anything else. Ph adjusting is done by making a proper soil and letting it cook (or using roots soil). Ph adjusters kill your microlife, and that makes your plant very unhappy. #2 NEVER use tap water, it will killl your microlife and make your plant have to do all the work, and that stresses it out. Bubbling it isn't enough, that only removes the chlorine but not the chloramine (which is chlorine bonded with amonia and it's alot more stable then chlorine). Invest in a Reverse Osmosis filter with a carbon filter, or just buy good R.O. or distilled water. #3 Don't worry about PPM, PPM readings are not accurate at all for true organics growing, instead follow the feeding schedule, call the company for help tweaking it between their different soil lines, some come hot, and others are fine to use the nutes right away. I have never used a ppm meter for anything but testing my tap water. #4 get a soil PH meter and throw the liquid ph meter in the garbage ( You can save it, but good luck not letting it go bad) I have never seen my roots soil ph doing anything but staying stable, but I do check every once in a while with a soil ph meter...it looks like a meat thermometer...lol. The acceptable range for Organics is 5.5-7.0 ph. #5 (for roots line specificly) if your using Revers osmosis water, or distilled, you MUST add cal/mag fromsome other line to your water, I use general organics' cal/mag and it works great. #6 NEVER EVER EVER use sythetics with organics! It kills me when I talk to guys at the grow store that are doing this, because their pot is going to taste like shit from the sythetic salts that even a flush won't get rid of, and they killed their microlife, so now their plant is stressed, because now it has to digest it's own food and make it's own nutrients (with organics, only some of the nutrients are available, the rest must be broken down). The symbiotic relationship between fungi/bacteria and the plants roots is super important to take advantage of. It's frustrating to read some of the things I hear on these forums, people are so misguided, I'm only on my 3rd grow and it's very smooth for me with roots line, the reason it goes well for me, is because I read so much. I recommend reading skunk magazine (all of the "THE REV's articles)and best of the rev magazines are the closts thing the a book about growing organic pot, "Marijuana Garden Saver", and "Teaming with Microbes". -I hope this helps clear things up for some of you that may have had problems with growing Organic Medical Marijuana.